Well I completed my HDTs, very happy about the construction of them and powered them up yesterday.

After listening for quite a few hours my impressions are very positive but are just a couple of things I would like to tweak, if it's at all possible.

The speakers sound wonderfully clear with superb imaging, highly detailed and smooth at the top and, fast all over and taut and deep in the bass. Absolutely fantastic!

So far, so good. I noticed a hint of tone to the sound which makes me think the cabinets are resonating a bit - not really surprising as the side and rear panels do ring when I knock them! I assume putting in the hardwood dowels as shown in other posts will alleviate that?

Also, and more of a concern to me, I was expecting a much fuller mid-band with full, rounded vocals etc. but the speakers seem to be fairly lacking in this range. (Thinner even than my Parker Audio 95s). Is there any reason why this might be, and anything I can consider to remedy it?

I have only used damping material above and below the driver, behind the passives and at the top of the driver chamber (as instructed) but I notice many of you have practically filled your HDTs with damping!

Also probably worth pointing out that I have screwed on the top and bottom plate (tightly) so I could gain access in case I needed to. The idea being to maybe glue these on later when everything was good.

My room is small, maybe that has something to do with the lack of mid-band. It's only about 12ft front to back and about 20ft wide, with much of it taken up by sloping ceiling (I'm in a loft room). Floor is carpeted with sisal but nothing on large expanse of sloping ceiling. I'm thinking maybe this also has a big effect on the sound.

So I'm very happy but if I can do anything about the lack of mid-band I will be much more so. Even with this little "problem" I am blown away by how good they are.

ya know, i had about the same experience with the hdt spkrs when they were first built, and almost decided that they were too thin in the midband for me. it was many hours later that the speaker broke in (thank god), and the sound changed significantly for the better. the sibilance problem was gone, the midrange became much richer, and the bass opened up. i will admit that i added the dowels as you mentioned, and anything else to help stiffen the cabinets. but the sound improved hours after that was done. it seemed that it all happened quite all at once, and this saved them from the 'for sale' future that they might have had. so, have patience, and dont hesitate to run them in relentlessly for quite a few hours at high volumes( i used a solid state amp for this with about 50 watss per channel). you will be rewarded in time......greg